Agri Sector burying Under Input Prices

The agriculture sector in Punjab, and in Pakistan by extension, is going down by the year and no-one is
trying to retrieve the situation. If gross negligence and the policy failures have to be ignored, one can
easily understand the departmental inertia.

Major reasons behind the current scenario are:

 The lack of reward and punishment is a sure recipe for destroying and sector, and, in fact, it has
destroyed the agriculture in the province.
 The second biggest reason for agriculture destruction is the increasing cost of input, which
literally has gone haywire, pulling the rug from under the feet of the sector. Some statistics
regarding unbelievable increase in input prices are as under.

Input 2008 Price (PKR) 2011 Price (PKR) Percentage Change

DAP 993 per bag 4,409 per bag ↑ 307 percent
Urea 537 per bag 1,150 per bag ↑ 118 percent
Nitrogen Phosphate 670 per bag 2,622 per bag ↑ 294 percent
Cal. ammo. Nitrate 396 per bag 972 per bag ↑ 145 percent
Diesel 57.14 per Ltr. 94 per Ltr. ↑ 64 percent
The Electricity and Tractor prices have also gone up by 85 percent.

Apart from the above picture, the situation became worse when almost all crops missed the official
targets in last two years.

Crops 2009-10 (Targeted) 2010-11 (Production) % Target Achieved

Gram 655,000 Tons 490,000 Tons 74.8%
Lentil 10,000 Tons 5,000 Tons 50%
Canola 75,000 Tons 29,000 Tons 38.6%
Cotton 9.7 M Bales 8.5 M Bales 87.6%
Rice 3.4 M Tons 2.6 M Tones 76.4%
Moong 139,000 Tons 77,000 Tons 55.4%
Mash 10,000 Tons 5,000 Tons 50%

All these factors lead to inflation in food prices. If the sector continues missing production targets,
putting pressure on the supply side and is forced use exceptionally high inputs, it is easy to calculate
what will happen to the output.

The government as well as private sector needs to take an elaborate consultative process that brings all
stakeholders on one platform to trash the issues out.